Nation: Inside the Jerry Ford Drama

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National Committee Chairman Bill Brock joined Reagan in his Plaza suite to watch the convention on television. Unaware of the Reagan overtures to Ford, Brock urged Reagan and his aides to try again to get Ford to run. He was astonished at Reagan's enthusiasm for what was becoming known as the "Ford option," in contrast to the "standard option" (the much publicized short list of contenders, headed by Bush). Brock decided then that he too would plead with Ford. Around midnight, Brock called Convention Chairman John Rhodes on the podium and invited him to a breakfast next morning in Brock's 70th-floor Plaza suite to discuss the "dream ticket."

It was also about midnight when the Ford party, including Greenspan, left the yacht and went back to the Ford suite. Although Ford had a commitment to appear early Wednesday on the Today show, he sat patiently through nearly two hours of informal chats about joining the ticket. The group, including Political Aides Barrett and Marsh, was joined by Kissinger, his wife Nancy and son David, 18. Ford led Kissinger into another room, where the two talked privately for 45 minutes.

Kissinger leaned hard on Ford's sense of patriotism. ("He had to be motivated to give up a hell of a lot," Kissinger explained later.) One of those in the party described the former Secretary's role throughout the evening as "alternately being a very dear friend of Ford and next using the plea of national emergency." Urged Kissinger at one point: "The country needs you." Replied Ford: "But, Henry, it won't work."

It was no secret that Ford would like Kissinger back at the State Department and that Reagan had rejected the idea, but Kissinger now injected a personal point about his future: "Under no circumstances, Mr. President, I must tell you, should any personalities or names keep you from doing this. There's no desire on my part to have any position."

Betty Ford sat through the discussions in some discomfort. Early in the conversation she asked a poignant question: "Why us again?" She heard her husband resist a return to Washington. For one thing, he had worked with a Vice President he admired, Nelson Rockefeller, and yet their two staffs had constantly quarreled. Now he and his family had worked out a fine life, and they were all enjoying themselves. He did not want to become "an election ploy." But as the group broke up, about 2 a.m., one participant turned back to Betty for her opinion. "Whatever is needed," she said, I'll do."

Wednesday Morning: A Dissenter

Ford began his day with an appearance on NBC's Today show that intrigued his early-rising aides and cheered the Reagan staff. When asked the obvious question of whether taking the second spot would offend his pride, he said: "Honestly, if I thought the situation would work, if all the other questions could be resolved, the problem of pride would not bother me in any way."